Article profiling Jaron Purcell from the NSW RL site.
Quotes from Fittler and Buderus saying how good he was as MOTM in the Mats grandfinal and for NSW under 16s.
He is a really hard working lock forward.
He was very good last year, but we have so many good forwards for under 18s this year he might find himself on the bench or even be out of the top 17 if all fit.

I didn't even really notice Purcell in Mathews till the big games at the end of the season.
The team was really entertaining to watch, with fullback Bradman Best do massive, blockbusting runs and little Max Buderus pulling out every trick in the books in the halves, but on reflection, Purcell doing lot's of quality work in the forwards was obviously just as important as the guys doing the flashy stuff.

I love my Knights juniors but some of the guys in charge wouldn't know a good player if it bit them on the arse. To much politics going on there with ****head Pezet calling the shots.
We have lost to many classy young ones to other clubs. If only we could hold onto them.

Went to watch a bit.
Cronulla brought a heap of teams - even what looked like under 18s girls.
I gave up after a few hours because I had no idea what age etc they were - but clearly both the Knights and Cronulla have big numbers and some pretty slick teams.

Went to watch a bit.
Cronulla brought a heap of teams - even what looked like under 18s girls.
I gave up after a few hours because I had no idea what age etc they were - but clearly both the Knights and Cronulla have big numbers and some pretty slick teams.

I stayed for the under 15s. It was a funny game. We had about 30 players suited up, and they had 17 that I could see. The first 20 minute period we lost 2 tries to 1. For the second 20 minute period we ran out a completely different side and won the period 3 tries to 1 and were probably unlucky to not do better. I thought we were going well at 16 - 12 40 minutes in, but suddenly a whole new side from Cronulla came from the warm up field and scored 5 tries to 0 in the last 20. The second Cronulla side looked pretty slick.

I stayed for 20 minutes of Matts and it was pretty even. Both sides looked pretty slick.

Not surprized our Ball side went well, but that's a great score against a side that should be one of the other contenders this year.

Not surprized the Cronulla girls won either - they looked a fit bunch of girls.

Some great results 15s won the first 2 20 min halves until Cronulla brung some of there Harold Matt’s down and we where where playing sixteen year olds. Plus we had 6 players out who where playing rebel’s and Matt’s. So our full team would of comfortably beat them.

Some great results 15s won the first 2 20 min halves until Cronulla brung some of there Harold Matt’s down and we where where playing sixteen year olds. Plus we had 6 players out who where playing rebel’s and Matt’s. So our full team would of comfortably beat them.

Coach of the nib Newcastle Knights Junior Under 18s side admits they’re getting closer to finalising combinations before the start of the SG Ball Cup.

Scott Dureau maintains they’ve got a talented squad to select from.

“Overall as a squad, they’re going to be successful and most guys are going to get a chance to show their worth throughout the year, " he said.

“There’s quite a number of players that have played and trained really well through the off-season, so there’s probably going to be some disappointed players that don’t make the team in two week’s time.

“They’re travelling nicely, they’re about where we thought they would be and hopefully we’ll be able to hit our stride for the start of the season.”

A number of players from the premiership winning Harold Matthews Cup side last year have been promoted to SG Ball, who will be a year-young for the 2018 season.

“They’ll get a little taste throughout the year and we’ll be sure to manage their workload being a year younger,” added Dureau.

“Having a huge year last year, we’ll look after them, but they’ll continue to learn and develop as players.”

The Under 18s squad has taken part in four trial matches from mid-December which has been handy to boost match play time.

“The first couple were a little bit rusty because they had a lot of time off, especially in this age group, and it was a big break since their last game,” explained Dureau.

“The last two trials against Canberra and Cronulla were a pretty good test against two good teams so we’ve done really well so far and hopefully we can carry that forward into the season.

“The boys have trained really hard up until now, they’re excited and ready for Round 1.”

The Junior Knights coach maintains a short nine round season means they’ll need to be push hard to achieve good results early.

“St George in Round 1 at Cessnock, so if we can play the way we have in our last couple of trial matches, we’ll be competitive and hopefully continue to learn and develop week to week,” he said.

“You can’t take too many weeks to warm up, which is why this year we added an extra training trial game and had four trial games instead of three.

“Hopefully they’ll be fitter for Round 1 and can carry that throughout the year.”

It’s less than two weeks until the nib Newcastle Knights Under 16s kick off their 2018 season in the Harold Matthews Cup.

Coach Rory Kostjasyn admits preparations have progressed well following four trial matches since mid-December last year and a recent three-day camp.

“We have just got back from a camp at Bonny Hills and we were much improved after that, so we are looking forward to Round 1 in two weeks time,” said Kostjasyn.

“While we don’t take the result of trial matches too much into account, the processes that we’ve been practicing showed some improvement across the board, so pretty happy with that.

“We learned some valuable lessons at the trial match against Canberra, which was two weeks ago, about preparation and this week we prepared and performed a lot better.

“It’s been a good pre-season, but it won’t mean too much if we don’t take it into Round 1.”

The Under 16s side line up against St George for their first match on Saturday, February 10.

The junior competition is a nine-round season, before the finals series kicks off in mid-April.

In his first year of coaching, Kostjasyn is hopeful they can replicate another successful season, after the Knights Harold Matthews side took out the decider last season, but his priority is the development of young talent.

“The main thing I’m trying to do is develop our young kids into better footballers and hopefully some of these guys will be able to play or be in the SG Ball squad a year-young next year,” explained Kostjasyn.

“It’s a completely different team, none of the guys that played in the Harold Matthews team last year are in our squad.

“A lot of them have played Rebels U15s development, some junior rep footy and local footy together but mainly for us just building their core skills and defensive principles.”